Life Transitions_Answer

We all know that our sense of identity and our priorities shift as we move through various life stages. Some of these transitions are fairly gradual and we just live our way into the next stage of life with minimal muss and fuss. Other transitions are rapid, even precipitous. Going through puberty, getting married and having a child are usually rather dramatic changes that shake up and reshape our sense of our identities and priorities.

Moving into a new age decade seems to be a common time when people consciously or unconsciously reevaluate their life directions. For you, it sounds like turning 50 is one such moment of transition. Many people have significant psychological shifts at this time. For those who have had children, this is often the time that the children are usually out of the house and have lives of their own. The hard-driving work of establishing a career is mostly behind you and it is time to reevaluate.

It is quite normal to be feeling a shift in your priorities around work/life balance, your interests and perhaps your relationships as well. Around age 50, a lot of people begin to recognize that there are likely more years of life behind them than there are ahead of them. Indications of our mortality ranging from our own health problems to the unexpected deaths of some of our relatively younger adult friends can bring our own mortality into sharp focus.

I encourage you to flow with the changes and realize that it will take months, maybe a year or more to get your bearings with your evolving values and priorities. Some decisions like change decisions like working less overtime or discontinuing certain services positions may be made fairly quickly, but I would encourage you to take more time to make decisions like moving, quitting your job or getting a divorce. The impulses you feel around some of these issues will probably wax and wane quite a few times over the next months or year or two. Just be reassured that you are going through a developmental evolution that is quite natural. I trust that you will come out on the other side of this transition with a newly fashioned and more grounded sense of self and life purpose for this decade of your life.